Northern Illinois Says It Belongs With the Best

DeKALB, Ill. — Three weeks ago, Northern Illinois opened the Chessick Practice Center, a $9.5 million building with a full-size indoor turf field that will help its football team cope with Midwestern winters and perhaps further its rise from an anonymous team on the prairie to a national powerhouse.

Near the 50-yard line, a large banner honors the team’s trip to last season’s Orange Bowl. In a hallway is another homage to that game: a display with a jersey and a helmet, decorated half in Northern Illinois colors and half in those of its opponent, Florida State.

The Huskies lost to the Seminoles, 31-10, on Jan 1. It was a thud of an ending to what had been a dream season, culminating in the Mid-American Conference’s first invitation to a Bowl Championship Series game. To some, the loss reaffirmed Northern Illinois and the M.A.C.’s second-tier status: not big, fast or good enough to compete with college football’s elite.

A year later, the intentions of the Huskies, who are 10-0 and ranked 15th in the B.C.S. standings, are unambiguous.

“After losing that game, we had a bad taste in our mouth,” quarterback Jordan Lynch said. “We came up with a motto: Finish the fight. That’s what we want to do this year. We want to go back to a B.C.S. bowl, and we want to win.”

On Wednesday night the Huskies had their largest stage this season to broadcast that message, with a nationally televised home game against Ball State.

Two days after the season’s first snow dusted DeKalb, students and fans bundled up, many toting signs that ESPN’s cameras did not miss.

One read “We Want Bama,” a request for a date with the top-ranked Crimson Tide.

The Huskies, behind Lynch, a Heisman Trophy hopeful, delivered a performance worthy of the exposure. They outscored Ball State, which entered the game 9-1 and undefeated in conference play, 28-3, in the second half on the way to a 48-27 win.

With N.F.L. scouts on hand, Lynch was sublime, rushing for 123 yards and 2 scores and throwing for another 345 yards and 2 touchdowns.

On a third down in the second half, he was caught in the backfield by two defenders but slipped the tackle and scrambled for a first down. In the go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, on third-and-long, he evaded several potential sacks and found a receiver for a first down.

Ball State Coach Pete Lembo described Lynch as “built like a linebacker with tailback speed.” He added, “He’s got a lot of savvy, too.”

A season ago, Lynch finished seventh in the Heisman voting. This year, he is fourth in the F.B.S. in rushing yards (1,273) and tied for 13th in touchdown passes (21).

Northern Illinois Coach Rod Carey said after the game: “If Jordan isn’t in the conversation for the Heisman, I don’t know what people were watching. Obviously, they were asleep.”

Lynch’s Heisman campaign may be gaining momentum, but his team’s path to a B.C.S. game remains steep.

The Huskies entered Wednesday behind another nonqualifying conference team, No. 14 Fresno State, in the B.C.S. standings. Without a Fresno State loss, a B.C.S. game remains a long shot.

Lynch, though, is lobbying. “I feel like we get disrespected all over the place,” he said. “All we do is do our job and win games. We shouldn’t be punished for that.”

Still, the B.C.S. is not the only measuring stick. Northern Illinois, for the second straight season, is probably the best team in the state. Its two wins against Big Ten teams are more than the conference members Northwestern and Illinois have: They are winless in Big Ten play.

Then there is the Chessick center. In the Huskies’ first practice — they have had only three there — players and coaches were so impressed that they walked around taking pictures.

Carey sent a photograph to Joe Novak, who coached at Northern Illinois from 1996 to 2007. His old office, Carey said, is now a closet.

“That ought to tell you how far we’ve come,” Carey said.

Northern Illinois wore uniforms decorated in a patriotic pattern Wednesday night: stars and stripes on the shoulders, the word “heroes” replacing players’ names on the jerseys. It was a gesture to the armed forces for Veterans Day, but also a nod to the national brand the Huskies hope to become.

Asked if Northern Illinois would relish following in the footsteps of Boise State, a perennial underdog and national darling, Carey replied: “We don’t want to be Boise State, we want to be N.I.U. I don’t know where the ceiling is for this program, and I think that’s probably a good thing.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B16 of the New York edition with the headline: Northern Illinois Says It Belongs With the Best. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe